Pomona

Chris Yemma Most Daily Pilot Cup soccer matchups aren't about scores, stats and records, or who's better and who's worse. Winning and losing almost blend together at the end of the day, after the oranges have been consumed and the juice drinks sucked dry. There was no exception to the carefree bliss at Friday's third- and fourth-grade girls Silver division matchup between Pomona Elementary and Sonora. It was a game of learning the fundamentals, with the majority of the kids never playing the sport before.

COSTA MESA -- The Vanguard University men's basketball team got 16 points from De'Auonte Johnson and 10 points and eight rebounds from Levi Seekins, but it wasn't enough in a 66-62 loss to NCAA Division II Cal Poly Pomona in a nonconference game Monday. The Lions (5-4) led by six at halftime, but were outscored, 37-27, in the second half. A bucket by Johnson gave the Lions a 61-60 lead with 1:12 to play, but Cal Poly Pomona's Jonathan Boyd (game-high 18 points) hit what turned out to be the game-winning jumper in the paint.

Tony Altobelli NEWPORT BEACH - Frustration was the word of the night Friday, following Corona del Mar's 18-0 nonleague football loss to Pomona at Newport Harbor High. "I don't know what to say after a game like this," Sea Kings Coach Dick Freeman said. "We were very inconsistent on offense all night. We tried to make adjustments, but you can't when you only do the right thing part of the time." With only 121 yards of total offense and four first downs, Corona del Mar (0-2)

COSTA MESA — Kaiser Elementary's first-year coach Michael Vrbas has enough trouble getting his own named spelled correctly in the newspaper. Now he will have to make sure his son Conrad has the same consideration, as the youngster took the first touch after the starting whistle and scored the first of Kaiser's four goals against Pomona in a boys' third- and fourth-grade bronze division game of the Daily Pilot Cup Wednesday. The final was 4-0 and despite tremendous effort from Pomona, Kaiser had control from the start.

COSTA MESA — The Harbor Day girls enjoyed a team barbecue Friday, scrimmaging against the boys and relaxing with friends and family. Harbor Day continued the party on the pitch Saturday morning as the fifth- and sixth-grade silver division girls kept its undefeated record — and a bid for back-to-back championships — intact with a 3-0 win against Pomona at the Pilot Cup. "Our defense has been very strong," coach Dave DiGiovanni said....

COSTA MESA — Jeff Wood might've looked silly if he was out on the dance floor. But he was on the pitch and he made himself look natural after scoring a goal, and then another, and another. After each time he found the net, he had some special celebration. He was just having fun, and in the process he led Waldorf to a 3-2 victory over Pomona in a boys' fifth- and sixth-grade bronze division quarterfinal game of the Daily Pilot Cup Saturday. Wood's hat trick came with some flair at Costa Mesa High.

Costa Mesa High finished third in the Loara Tournament Saturday night following the Mustangs' 63-43 boys basketball victory over Pomona, upping Mesa's record to 3-1. Chad Vakili and David Conte, both all-tournament choices, led the way with 23 and 22 points, respectively, as Mesa broke it open in the second quarter with a 22-11 spurt. Both connected on a pair of three-point shots in that span. Of Costa Mesa's 22 points in the second quarter the Dynamic Duo accounted for 19 of them, Conte with 10 points and Vakili with nine.

COSTA MESA — It was quite an athletic Saturday for members of the Andersen Elementary girls' third- and fourth-grade bronze division team. Many of the Andersen players competed for the Harbor View Swim Team in its season-opening swim meet in the morning, before hustling over to the Farm Sports Complex for their Daily Pilot Cup game in the early afternoon. Harbor View and Andersen are both the Dolphins. Everything's going quite swimmingly for this talented group of third-grade girls.

Barry Faulkner POMONA - After being "shocked" by a lack of physical play in Corona del Mar High's season-opening loss last week, Sea Kings Coach Dick Freeman hopes he'll be pleasantly surprised when CdM visits Pomona Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Ganesha High. "To watch us get hit and not fight back (against Cypress) stunned me," Freeman said of the 35-10 setback Saturday night. "We didn't react that way in our scrimmage." Freeman termed the poor showing "the worst football game I've ever been associated with at Corona del Mar," and lack of aggression, more than mistakes or the 25-point deficit, was the basis for his remark.

In a classroom full of elementary school students, a vocal instructor pointed at fifth-grader Bryan Agustin, who promptly opened his mouth and sang one word: tuba. His peers turned to look at him, eyes wide, and surprised by the beautiful sound that escaped from the 11-year-old Pomona Elementary School student. The exercise of musical categories teaches students how to use their singing instead of speaking voices, said Molly Pontin, executive director at Pacific Chorale. "He's so talented," she said of Bryan.

COSTA MESA - With nothing but sixth-graders on its roster, The Pegasus School fifth- and sixth-grade boys' gold division team feels that it can make a run at this year's Daily Pilot Cup. The Thunder certainly made a statement on the opening day of the six-day tournament. Eddie Pelc scored late in the second half as Pegasus stunned defending division champion Pomona, 1-0, on Tuesday at Jack Hammett Sports Complex. It was a satisfying victory for Pegasus, which dominated scoring opportunities.

Costa Mesa police arrested a 12-year-old boy Wednesday on suspicion of bringing a drug-laced brownie to TeWinkle Middle School, according to a news release. Police said the actual substance that caused three students to be hospitalized had not been determined, but they believe it was marijuana or a derivative. The boy, whose identity was not released because of his age, was booked on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to the release. This was the second such incident at a Costa Mesa school in as many months.

Fifty years later, Renee Pantoja hasn't lost the curiosity he had as a 7-year-old. Pantoja was a second-grader at Pomona Elementary School when it first opened in Costa Mesa for the 1961-62 school year. He watched crews seal a rectangular copper box in the wall outside the front gate with the promise it would be opened after 50 years. As the anniversary approached, that capsule weighed on his mind. "I was just excited to find out what was in the box," he said. So he contacted the district with the help of some former school staff and showed crews where to exhume the historical container.

Costa Mesa police Friday clarified an incident that lead to the arrest of a 12-year-old boy on suspicion of marijuana possession on a school campus. The sixth-grader allegedly brought a marijuana-laced brownie to Pomona Elementary School on Tuesday, and paramedics responded after students shared it and one child began vomiting, according to police. Seven students were transported to Hoag Hospital and later released to their parents. As police investigated the incident, classmates identified the boy who allegedly brought the brownie, but he was uncooperative with detectives, police said.

BASEBALL BYU 3, UC Irvine 1 PROVO, Utah - The visiting Anteaters left nine men on base to waste starter Matt Whitehouse's second straight complete game in nonconference action on Friday. BYU clinched the three-game series with its second consecutive win over the No. 21-ranked Anteaters, who had not lost a series all season. Whitehouse allowed seven hits and three runs in eight innings. He struck out six and did not walk a batter. The loss was the first of the junior's collegiate career and dropped him to 2-1 this season.

About 30 high school students got a pep talk in the rain at Pomona Elementary School Friday. "It's a little awkward at first, but by the end, they won't want you to leave," Jamie Kula, a parent organizer with the Newport-Mesa chapter of the National League of Young Men, told the students about the project they were about to undertake. That project involved meeting about 30 fourth-graders. "We have some visitors for you guys," aide Cynthia Cruz told the fourth-graders. "They have some cool stuff for you, and they want to hang out and get to know you. So make sure you're not being shy. " With that, the high schoolers wheeled in a cart full of school supplies.

LOS ANGELES - The pre-game excitement before a college football game - where throngs of people are dressed in school colors, barbecuing and having a good time - is enough to get anyone energized. But for about two-dozen Costa Mesa sixth-grade students, just being on a university campus, let alone the pre-football game revelry, was an eye opener. "Everywhere I've been has been awesome," said Andrea Rubalcava on Saturday at the University of Southern California campus, just before the Trojans faced Colorado at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

First-grader Oscar Solis stood onstage dressed up as Vincent van Gogh in an oversized brown blazer and ginger beard. He held a paintbrush and palette. Then came the finishing touch for his head: a straw hat with three blue candles fixed on top. "He liked to paint all night, and they didn't have electricity back then," said speaker Joan McMahan of Meet the Masters, an art education program that introduces students to artists. Pomona Elementary School students from kindergarten up to sixth grade learned about the life, works and painting style of van Gogh during their first Meet the Masters assembly.

COSTA MESA - It was a joyous celebration after the Pomona Elementary boys' fifth- and sixth-grade gold division team made history Sunday afternoon at the Daily Pilot Cup. Family members made a huge human tunnel, one that stretched out to near midfield. The Pomona boys ran through it, before sprinting off to the awards ceremony. How did it feel to be the first Pomona team to win a gold division title at the annual tournament? You could say it felt like a big accomplishment.